James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ Franchise To Become First Trilogy To Cross $6 Billion At Global Box Office, Thanks To ‘Avatar: Fire & Ash’

Director James Cameron‘s claim to fame as the king of the box office is going to be cemented as he’s broken yet another global box office record with the help of his third chapter in the “Avatar” saga, as “Avatar: Fire & Ash” has pushed the trilogy’s earnings past the $6 billion mark globally.

The breakdown of the franchise’s hefty success at the box office is that “Avatar” earned $2.743 billion, “Avatar: The Way of Water” made an equally impressive $2.320 billion, and “Avatar: Fire & Ash” has accumulated $794 million (and counting), which is so far a combined cume of $5.8 billion, nearing $6 billion (a similar sum to what Disney is said to have earned over 2025) in the coming days/weeks. That $6 billion number could easily spike to $7-8 billion, depending on how much “Fire & Ash” ultimately makes.

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It’s hard not to be impressed by those figures, as this would surpass the numbers for the recent box office heavyweights such as the “Star Wars” sequel trilogy ($4.8 billion), the recent “Spider-Man” trilogy ($3.9 billion) led by Tom Holland, and the first three “Avengers” films ($4.9), all considered to have similar draws from a global audience.

We don’t know what the earning potential ultimately will be for “Avatar: Fire & Ash” (the film is on track to do extremely well and should hit the profit zone), but there has been some question if Disney will be happy enough when the dust settles, given the massive costs of production, post, and marketing these juggernaut event films.

What this means for the fate of “Avatar 4” (Cameron has already shot scenes during “The Way of Water” production, including with Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh playing a human scientist) and “Avatar 5” remains to be seen. But Cameron has telegraphed he may decide to focus on other films (“Ghosts of Hiroshima,” “The Devils,” and a new “Terminator” film being on his plate of non-Avatar projects) along with potentially handing directorial reins to someone else and even suggested he may reveal plot details of those incomplete movies at a press conference if the latest installment doesn’t do the kind of business Disney needs to move forward with the next two Pandora adventures.

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We’ll likely get official word from Disney or Cameron on what is going to happen sooner rather than later. The filmmaker has also teased a desire to expand the franchise with an anthology project inspired by The Wachowskis‘ “The Animatrix” (an animated film that expanded upon the lore of “The Matrix“), on top of those other two films.